Expert: When a parent in same-sex relationship dies, custody turns into nightmare

7:17 PM, February 26, 2014

April DeBoer and Jayne Rowse of Hazel Park are raising three adopted children and want to be legally recognized as one family. The kids, from left, Nolan, Jacob and Ryanne. / 2013 photo by Mandi Wright/Detroit Free Press

Protesters march outside U.S. District Court in Detroit on Tuesday, the first day of the trial. It is scheduled to last up to eight days, and the state is expected to start calling witnesses Monday. / Mandi Wright/Detroit Free Press

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When a parent in a same-sex relationship dies, the surviving partner faces a quagmire of legal hurdles to gain custody of any kids, an expert testified Wednesday in a trial that could bring gay marriage to Michigan.

Existing options cause instability for the children and are expensive and time-consuming, University of Michigan law professor Vivek Sankaran testified Wednesday.

Sankaran was the third witness plaintiffs called in the trial in U.S. District Court in Detroit.

April DeBoer and Jayne Rowse, both nurses, are fighting to overturn the state’s ban on same-sex marriage and adoption by same-sex couples. They’re raising three adopted children in their Hazel Park home, and they want to be legally recognized as one family.

A constitutional amendment banning gay marriage was approved by Michigan voters in 2004. The state Attorney General’s Office says Judge Bernard Friedman should respect the will of voters.

Sankaran, who founded the Detroit Center for Family Advocacy, said that organization aims to keep kids out of foster care. About 14,000 children are in Michigan’s system, including about 3,500 legal orphans. The number of kids aging out of the foster system has climbed in recent years to about 800, he said.

He said DeBoer and Rowse, both licensed foster parents, “have done a tremendous job” raising the three children, who have “immense special needs.”

He described the process to have guardianship approved for the surviving partner in a same-sex relationship, and how it’s always open to challenge and has to be renewed every year.

Also Wednesday, sociologist Michael Rosenfeld of Stanford University said research clearly shows that children raised by same-sex parents suffer no disadvantage when compared to other kids.

On Thursday, Dr. Gary Gates of the Williams Institute is expected to testify that same-sex couples are more likely to consider adopting children with special needs or who are older “because they don’t want the perfect child,” said Dana Nessel, attorney for DeBoer and Rowse.

Court adjourned Wednesday shortly after noon, when state attorney Joseph Potchen only briefly questioned Sankaran. One witness is scheduled each day for Thursday and Friday.

Several protesters stood on the sidewalk outside the courthouse Wednesday, waving signs opposed to same-sex marriage.

The trial is scheduled to last up to eight days, and the state is expected to start calling witnesses Monday.

Contact Robert Allen: 313-223-4537 or rallen@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @rallenMI. The Associated Press contributed to this report.